By Neil Trainis

Asda has announced it will close seven of its 254 in-store pharmacies at the start of August.

Branches will close in Southampton, Seaham, Feltham, Blackburn, Adel, West Bradford and Weston-Super-Mar. An Asda pharmacy spokesperson told the Lancashire Telegraph the branch in Blackburn “has been running at a loss for a number of years” and the decision to close it was taken after a consultation.

“We recognise this will be a difficult time for our pharmacy colleagues at the store and we are in discussions with all of them to support them through this process, we will do all we can to find alternate roles” the spokesperson said.

All seven pharmacies will close on Thursday, August 3, according to The Sun who reported the closures will affect 48 hourly-paid colleagues and 14 pharmacists. It is believed Asda are working on re-employing affected staff to other branches.

This is not the first time financial pressures have forced a multiple to close branches. LloydsPharmacy will close its branches in Sainsbury’s stores and in February, Independent Community Pharmacist exclusively revealed LloydsPharmacy had started selling branches across the UK. In January, Tesco announced plans to close eight pharmacies.